Draco's Suitcase
by Cicada with Pen
Summary: How do you pack up your life? A prequel to Hawthorn Roots.


A/N Like everyone else who writes Harry Potter fanfiction, I do not own Harry Potter. Also, the quote I mention is paraphrased from a quote by George Santayana.

This story is about the things that Draco Malfoy is taking with him when he goes to restart his life after the war. Though it's a prequel to Hawthorn Roots, the story makes more sense if you read it after reading Hawthorn Roots, though it will still make sense if you read it before reading Hawthorn Roots.

Thanks to lilac9109, who contributed the idea for this story and ideas for the items!

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><p><em>Photo<em>

It's a relatively small photograph in a simple frame, the direct opposite of the large oil portraits of Malfoy ancestors in lavish gold mountings, and like the frame, the picture is simple too. He supposes that it was taken on a vacation, because he sees the ocean in the background. Lucius and Narcissa are standing on the shore, beaming down on their infant son. Narcissa looks carefree and happy, her usual disapproving expression gone, her blonde hair loose and streaming in an invisible wind. Even Lucius looks content; he has one arm around his wife, and, for once, a smile. Baby Draco is laughing and trying to grab Narcissa's hair, entranced by this new shiny plaything.

Draco found this picture as a small child searching the library, and kept it ever since in his bedside table. He often wishes he could travel back to that moment, back to when his father was loving and caring instead of the distant, angry man that he's known all his life, back to when his mother was relaxed and happy instead of the overprotective, disapproving woman he calls Mother, back to when his parents looked at him with love, not caring about him being perfect or exemplary, or anything that smacked of being the Malfoy heir.

Draco cherishes this photo because, though excoriate and pressure him they would, it is hard proof that they really did love him for just being their son, at least once upon a time (and he hopes that, deep down, they always did). When he's packing up his things to leave Malfoy Manor to re-create his life, he tucks this photo in a special pocket in his suitcase.

* * *

><p><em>Piece of the Vanishing Cabinet<em>

It's a chunk about the size of his hand, thick and heavy, burned so badly that the elaborate engravings that once graced the doors of the Vanishing Cabinet are barely visible. Once a splendid piece of craftsmanship, the magnificent black walnut cabinet is now a ruined mess, destroyed by Fiendfyre.

Though the fire has long since cooled, the memories are still searing, and at times he can't bring himself to look at it. He remembers the dizzying rush of elation that he felt when, after days and weeks and months and agony, he finally fixed the Cabinet, but that joyous memory is quickly quenched by all the terrible happenings of that year and the year after. The black scars on the wood, like the black scar on his arm, are forever unfading, forever a reminder of everything that was lost.

He packs it in his suitcase too, though he's not sure why. He recalls a quote that Professor Binns frequently intoned in the voice that never failed to bore his students to sleep, "Those who do not learn their history are doomed to repeat it," and if there's one thing he wants, it's that he won't make the mistakes he made in the war again. He packs the charred fragment as a lesson, and hopes he'll be wise enough to make the right decisions.

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><p><em>Prefect badge<em>

He deliberates long and hard about including the shield-shaped badge emblazoned with its verdant snake and silver P - his years at school are something he'd rather forget. Still, the memories of fifth year aren't so bad - he got all the privileges of a prefect, plus he got to dock points because he was a member of the Inquisition Squad.

He doesn't remember much from the hot summer day that the badge came in the post, but he does remember his satisfaction when he saw that Harry Potter hadn't gotten one. He also remembers his parents' hopes that he'd become Head Boy, and he chuckles bitterly. The whole prefect-Head Student system had been crushed by Snape and the Carrows; Amycus and Alecto took the place of the Head Boy and Girl under Snape's management.

In the end, he decides to pack the badge, thinking that it'll remind him of the payback he gave Ron Weasley that year - something that's sure to cheer him up if he's feeling low.

* * *

><p>He Apparates to London on a gray, dismal day, landing in front of the Leaky Cauldron just as it starts to rain. He hurries inside and muses in a chair by the window, making plans to restart his life.<p> 


End file.
